Would That It Were True

The U.S. Is Giving The Developing World A Run For Its Money

More US babies die on their first day than in 68 other countries, report shows

One more stat that should tell us that something is terribly wrong with our society.

My Bad

I grew up under the mistaken impression that it was possible to live in Walt Whitman's America.



Whitman's America was but a beautiful dream. The nightmare reality that I live each day is Ronald Reagan's America.



sic transit gloria mundi...

Reaganomics

An unmitigated disaster.

The Boston Lock-Down

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, law enforcement officials appealed to the public for possible leads on the perpetrators. The information produced through this cooperation led to the identification of two suspects (a pair of brothers). For unknown reasons, the suspects, instead of attempting to elude the police, chose to undertake a brazen crime spree involving a car-jacking, the fatal shooting of a campus police officer, and the robbery of a Seven-Eleven store. The suspects' whereabouts now exposed, the police pursued them; a gun battle ensued that resulted in the death of one suspect. As of this writing, another suspect remains at large. He is believed to be 19 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and is presumed armed and dangerous.

According to the web-site Neighborhood Scout (a source of information for buyers and sellers of real estate), the city of Boston, Mass., has a population of 625,087. Annually, that population experiences 5,528 violent crimes (8.84 violent crimes per 1000 residents; the national median is 3.9)--making the city safer than only 15% of all American cities. In other words, Bostonians are no strangers to violent criminal activity. Each year, the residents of Boston have a 1 in 113 chance of being the victim of a violent crime. On average, 15 violent crimes are committed in Boston on each day of each year. Despite the danger, Boston law enforcement authorities do not lock-down the city.

When Boston's women were terrorized over a two year period (from 1962-1964) by the so-called "Boston Strangler," Boston law enforcement authorities did not lock-down the city.

In August 2007, Michelle Obama spoke to supporters in rural Iowa about her husband's decision to run for President. Among the reasons that she gave for why she approved that decision was "...I am tired of being afraid. I am tired of living in a country where every decision that we have made over the last ten years wasn't for something, but it was because people told us we had to fear something. We had to fear people who looked different from us, fear people who believed in things that were different from us, fear one another right here in our own backyards. I am so tired of fear, and I don't want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear" (quoted in Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear, 2nd edition (2009), 244).

The Obamas have been in the White House for the past six years and Americans are as frightened as ever--not of the every day violence that makes Boston more dangerous than 85% of all U.S. cities, but of the rare and extraordinary violence that can be perpetrated by individuals who are "different from us."

Lock-downs in the "land of the free and the home of the brave"--something about that just doesn't seem right. Where is Barack Obama's leadership on this vital issue of fear? Where is Michelle Obama's leadership on this vital issue of fear?

Am I suggesting that Mr. Tsarnaev should be allowed to roam free? Of course not. None of the perpetrators of Boston's 5,528 annual crimes of violence should be permitted to roam free. The Boston Strangler should not have been permitted to roam free. Crimes should be reported and investigated; criminals should be apprehended and made to stand trial.

What troubles me about the Boston lock-down is the message that it sends to the world: the citizens of that great American city--a founding city of the American revolution--have, out of fear of the rare and extraordinary, permitted their government to close the city while a search goes on for a 19 year-old fugitive from justice.

We like to say that we (Americans) won't give in to terror. In light of the Boston lock-down, why should anyone believe what we say?

Who's Ready For Democracy?

Perhaps the bearer of this sign (in the Iraqi town of Falluja) is giving the press in the U.S. a generous benefit of the doubt: he appears to be suggesting that those in the media who persist in reporting that the violence which continues to plague that country are mistaken in their assertion that religious sectarianism divides the Iraqi people--mistaken, instead of willfully distorting the facts to serve the political ends of the military-industrial complex in our country.

I tend to think that the persistent distortions of our mainstream news media are intentional. Once again, we blame the victims--especially those who would free themselves from our imperialist yoke. Our talking heads opine: "The Iraqis just aren't ready for democracy" (blah, blah, blah).

The Iraqis are more than ready for democracy and they are tired of our refusal to grant it to them--a refusal enforced by the puppet government the U.S. military installed in Baghdad and armed to the teeth to defend itself.

The Iraqis are more than ready for democracy. The real question that the American public needs to ask is: are we?

Tricknology

In 2008, Barack Obama presented himself as a genuine alternative to U.S. politics as usual. It was not only surprising to see but also heart-warming--especially in light of the fact that, in election after election, the Democratic Party had proved itself no friend of the Left. But by the time he took office in January 2009, it was clear to anyone who was paying attention that style had, once again, triumphed over substance. Surrounding himself with the old Clinton crowd, Obama sent a very clear message that he did not intend to threaten the status quo in Washington--or Wall Street, or anywhere else on the planet. Once again, the system had been successfully gamed. Once again, the "joke" (as it were) was on the American electorate. It was then that I heard the voice of Roger Daltry whisper in my ear, "We won't be fooled again." Obama was the last straw for me and, for that, I am grateful to him. His bold-faced duplicities opened my eyes and I exited the cave.

It's important to keep tabs on the world of illusion: with its infotainment industry, bad-faith governance, war-without-end. It is salutary. You do not want to forget what the shadow-play looks like--just as you go regularly to the doctor to renew your vaccinations. But then you must always return to the real struggle: daily living. You want to be there for that.

Thoreau observed in the 19th century that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. The 20th century brought huge leaps in technological innovation and we became ever more the "tools of our tools" (Thoreau again). In the 21st century, there is so much ennui and anomie. People cannot find enough stuff with which to stupify themselves. The old stand-bys (drink and drugs and games of chance) no longer suffice. The mass production of consumer goods makes it possible to become addicted to the latest gadget; the Hollywood dream factory makes it possible to become addicted to the latest starlet. But these things do not fill the void. What's more, music (without which, as Nietzsche said, life is a mistake) is no longer music (melody has been replaced by vulgar incantation or mindless saccharine repetition). Sex is everywhere (and thus nowhere). Salvation religion is sold like soap. Gurus are a dime a dozen. Guns are cheap and plentiful...And so it goes.

We fly through our lives like sparks emitted from the Pleroma. There is no rising tide of consciousness--no apocalyptic in-gathering. But some of us do indeed acquire a degree of consciousness and the conscience that goes with it. And then, as the Five Percenters say, "Each one teach one." As we come to the knowledge of self and world, we begin to recognize the devil's "tricknology" (the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had a real gift for language). At that point, as Wittgenstein would say, we know "how to go on." We learn to lead individualistic lives of rugged integrity. We resist, refuse, renounce, the devil and his pomps. We assume the posture of the Yoga of No. We practice the counter-jihad of Love.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. My liturgy for Easter is D. H. Lawrence's late essay "The Risen Lord." I have read this essay aloud every Easter since I first discovered it in 1980. If there is any life left in Christianity, it is of the Lawrentian kind. If there is any paganism worth embracing, it is of the Joycian kind:

"Amen. So be it. Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."